Collaborative networks as open Informatics System of Systems (ISoS)

Main challenges in systems integration and specifically removing the vendor lock-in problems are explored in the PhD thesis of Luis Osorio. This research is completed at the FCN group of the Informatics institute of UvA, under the supervision of Hamideh Afsarmanesh and Adam Belloum.
A growing number of emerging applications, such as those involving cyber-physical systems, require interaction/integration and subsystems infusion among their components, which in turn require developing an integrated informatics system of systems. This requirement has reopened many of the traditional and still remaining technical challenges in dealing with the complex integration of legacy Informatics Systems (Isystem), and the needed openness for the overall solution. Furthermore, the trend for advanced collaborative business models, where to the extent possible its stakeholders must dynamically join networks of distributed and heterogeneous business partners, has raised the need for innovative solutions to cope with this endeavor.
In this research, Collaborative Networked Organizations (CNO) are the selected domain to address challenges in tackling generalized interaction/integration requirements among heterogeneous systems, which run under different administrative domains. A novel discipline for development of integrated informatics systems is therefore needed, with concise models, to guide development of the involved Isystems at every node of the network, as well as for the development of an Isystem of systems (ISoS) for their proper support. Our proposed novel solution suggests an agnostic technological approach which can be used to facilitate adoption of potentially competing substitutes for every Isystem within the network. As such our approach primarily tackles the current vendor lock-in problem, and moves beyond it, toward a strategy to support open competitive informatics systems landscape. The requirements for this research are founded on a set of real industrial cases at some private and public companies, and in collaboration with authorities who have contributed to validation of the developed models.